Mel Abraham On How To Fortify Your Business Financially

Whoa! There is so much going on in the world right now that it leaves my head spinning sometimes. Before all this craziness broke out, I had the opportunity to go to a mastermind at Brenden Buchard’s house and hang out with some of the smartest business people in the world. Seriously. One of those awesome people was Mel Abraham. Before this mastermind, I’d never met Mel but we immediately clicked. By the end, I felt like we’d been best friends for years. One of the things I learned about Mel is that he’s known for building really successful businesses – when times are good and when times aren’t so good.

The knowledge and experience that Mel Abraham has is why I brought him on the Because I Can Life podcast.

As Mel says, right now, there are some businesses turning dollars into pennies and other businesses that are turning pennies into dollars. By the interview, I want you to know that you can be one of the latter businesses.

Mel Abraham on How to Take Back Your Confidence

First things first. Stop for a minute and take a deep breath.

Mel explains that before this pandemic caught the world off guard, our country (the USA) was doing great. So, this isn’t an economically driven issue, it’s a health-driven issue. And, if we can get things under control, we will certainly rebound back to where we were.

The big question is will it take 1 month or 6 months. And that’s what we need to be prepared for. Preparedness will lower your stress and anxiety in this uncertain time. With so much outside of your control right now, you need to double-down on the things that you can control.

Focus on What You Can Control

Mel made an chilling point that you really don’t hear being discussed right now in the news. And that’s how social isolation will impact people's emotional health.

How are you spending your time? Mel Abraham pointed out that the information you are taking in will largely determine our emotional state. Are you watching constant negative news about the coronavirus? How about the stock market?

If you are spending all your time and energy focusing on these things, do you think you’ll have anything left for the things you can control?!

Breaking Through All The Noise

I asked Mel about taking a step back from social media and all the noise that’s going on in the world. His recommendations were great! Mel says that we all need to be vigilant guards of our mind.

Meaning, we control everything that comes in. This certainly means social media, but it also might mean taking a break from some people close to us. If there are family and friends that are feeding you nothing but negativity, maybe you could use a break from them as well. That won’t be the easiest thing to do, but if you have some of those Negative Nancy’s in your life, then it might be what is needed.

Mel Abraham recommends to make sure you are consciously pursuing each of these daily:

Check your thoughts and keep out the negativity

Control who you surround yourself with (even virtually)

Look for new ways to serve your audience

Mel Abraham on How to Fortify Your Business Financially

Do you have a sales problem or a profit problem? That’s what Mel Abraham wants you to ask yourself first during this trying time. Whatever it is, there are some things all businesses need to be doing right now.

One of the most important is reaching out to your core clients. Mel isn’t just talking about sending out a blast to your email list. He’s talking about a one-on-one conversation with your clients. Show them you care! That call could be the thing that gets them to buy again or keep that recurring membership active.

Next, Mel wants you to go pull out your bank statements. Go ahead, get them out now. He wants you to red-line anything that isn’t crucial for your business. This might be software subscriptions that you don’t use or rarely use. Or, maybe it’s just things that you are buying that aren’t necessary to keep the doors open. Mark it, and start cutting your expenses. Ask yourself – is it a need or a want?

Needs = things necessary to generate revenue for the business.

Wants = things that are luxuries or optional for the business to operate.

Mel Abraham's Advice On Moving Forward

Normal isn’t going to be normal anymore. Mel says this is a huge opportunity for you to go serve and connect with your customers in a new way, and just build this into your processes even when this thing is over.

If you were thinking about starting your online shop before this started but have been on the fence up until now, Mel and I both agree that this might be your opportunity to start. You just have to start smart. Not racking up a bunch of credit card debt. Taking advantage of the time you might be quarantined in your house. Study and implement.

And if your business is already up and running, you should be looking for contingencies. You don’t want a “Plan B” some people say, Mel Abraham says that’s false.

As an entrepreneur, your job is to solve problems before they happen. Having ways you can pivot your business will be the difference between hanging on and closing down for some businesses.

Those who are planning and innovating during this time will make it through the other side wiser and with more loyal customers.

Make sure that’s you.

If you are in the 0-$100k Facebook Group, make sure you are active over there. It’s times like these when the community becomes even more important. Not just to learn more about your business but to keep your emotional state stable. There are a ton of awesome ladies in there supporting each other daily.

xo

Alison

Also, if you want more information specifically for online shop owners during the coronavirus pandemic, check out this episode as well.

Listener Love…

Inspirational

by Greenwichound from United Kingdom

Some of things that Alison discusses in her podcast are really simple. But sometimes you need it laid out in these terms for it to just go in. And go in it does. Meaning you leave each episode full of confidence and aspiration with a check list of to do’s or things to try out. She shares information bombs that others in her position would never share (fear of giving away their secret sauce) and every step of the way you feel like she’s championing your specific journey. She is golden and this show should be in the library of everyone thinking or currently doing Ecommerce. Keep it up Alison! X

Fantastic, just Fantastic

by 2shopornot from United States

I just went back and caught up on all the podcasts and can I just say I should’ve done this a long time ago! The content is so clear, Alison brings in guests that are so willing to share. Truly an amazing listen. If you haven’t joined Alisons group I strongly recommend that you not wait any longer! Your future is waiting!

Amazing Content for Entrepreneurs!

by galithoc from United States

Alison is very knowledgeable and presents information in a very easy way for newbies. My entire family listens to her every week. She has motivated my two daughters into starting their own business, they are 14 and 11!!!!. Thanks for this podcast, its amazing.

Very optimistic and useful!

by AJM.44 from United States

I find these podcasts useful, filled with good tips backed by her experience. She’s also very optimistic and makes me feel like I can do it! Which is why I want to get started! Ok Alison, this question is for you - I want to start selling online in an effort to fund my college education! Obviously I don’t have a lot of time, and more than that, I don’t know where to start lol! Do I create a Shopify store? Do I start selling on someone else’s site (and whose?!)? Do I do a ClickFunnel thing?!

Inspiring!

by InspiredLifeCrafts from United States

So many helpful tips and positivity. Love listening!

Great information!

by Stellar92677 from United States

I’m learning so much and I love your optimism. thank you!

Inspiring & Amazing

by DoohikeyDesigns from United States

Alison is the real deal! She’s real as she inspires you to reach your best life. She gives you glimpses into how she has made multi dollar million businesses. Alison was called to serve others to help others reach the dreams we have always wanted to achieve. She inspires to help us Rise Up to what God wants us to become!
It just keeps getting better and better!
Wow! Today’s episode in February is amazing! Literally I sell wholesale and know what it takes. But now I’m wanting to really create more retail sales and I have since being in your program!
Loved the episode that you did of Puerto Rico and why you moved. I loved how you testified of how God works in our lives and if we trust him we can do anything. Thanks for being a light and a mentor to me.

Thank You Alison!

by Savjack28 from United States

If you want to make real money and get out of the rat race of working for someone else, follow Alison J Prince. You will learn SO much!

I’m obsessed!

by Stormy Hinkle from United States

Alison is as smart as she is relatable. Every podcast episode is full of brilliant nuggets to help you along your entrepreneurial journey. With Alison on my team, I know I will find the courage to go for my big dreams!!

Beca Miller

by Beca Miller from United States

Alison is full of gold! I used to do all the work myself. The minute I took her advice and hired out, my sales started going up!

Life changing!

by Future CEO MR from United States

I bought your course last summer right in the middle of taking graduate courses to increase my salary lane as a teacher. No need to say that the increase in salary has not made any mayor changes. I always had the desire of doing an e-commerce business but did not know how to start. I still have not taken the time that I am supposed to dedicate to the course, however these podcasts had filled me with the courage I need to start doing it. Thank you Alison for your words of wisdom every Tuesday.

Thank You Alison!

by Savjack28 from United States

The best. If you’re serious about wanting to make real money online, you must listen to this podcast.

Awesome Podcast!!!

by Clarisse Gomez from United States

Alison, host of the Because I Can Life podcast, highlights all aspects of business, entrepreneurship and more in this can’t miss podcast! The host and expert guests offer insightful advice and information that is helpful to anyone that listens!

Inspiring & Amazing

by DoohikeyDesigns from United States

Alison is the real deal! She’s real as she inspires you to reach your best life. She gives you glimpses into how she has made multi dollar million businesses. Alison was called to serve others to help others reach the dreams we have always wanted to achieve. She inspires to help us Rise Up to what God wants us to become!
It just keeps getting better and better!
Wow! Today’s episode in February is amazing! Literally I sell wholesale and know what it takes. But now I’m wanting to really create more retail sales and I have since being in your program!

Thank you!

by gigisomar from United States

Allison, I really have so enjoyed your podcasts. Thank you for putting out all of this wonderful information.

Inspirational

by Missladyamy from United States

Alison.. love having your podcast available to help me keep going. I can listen to it while I do my makeup in the morning and get ready. You inspire my day and give me hope. Thank you. I am already in e commerce but want to take a different route in this area and excited for the new ideas you provide. - Renee @beprosperity

Wow

by M.Murawska from United States

I have been Alison’s student for almost 2 years. I am still learning!!! This pot cast was a piece of information that I was missing! Let’s make $$$$ with influencers! Thank You Alison❤️

Gold

by Brandeerose from United States

I’ve been a Alison fan for over a year! She gives so much great content and she over delivers ‘all the time’! I’ve been following her system and am a happy customer. Her 100k system is THE bomb! I’ve tried so many other courses and she’s the real dill. Lol. Thank you so much Alison for all you do. You’re truly a blessing. Instagram handle @threadsofarmor ❤️

Episode 15

by -akoboe from United States

Loved this episode and how broken down and step by step the details were. Question for you: How do you decide on a business name and shop for an e-commerce store if you don’t have a niche? Or do you only recommend opening a store for those who do? In the beginning, you sold a lot of random things that didn’t relate to each other, so did you use third party selling websites to sell or did you start your own store and how do you do that without a specific product or niche?

Excellent

by B-Rex1 from United States

Alison continues to offer great teaching moments with love and enthusiasm!!

Yes, BECAUSE WE CAN!

by twimoonlight from United States

I love your passion and love for this business. I love that you have worked so hard to give us such an awesome mentor, business Opportunity guidance, tools, and a Facebook group that we all can draw from and count on. Thank You!!!

I loved learning from Alison & Dave and can’t wait to check out the show notes! Sara & I started Stylingsamy.com thanks to Alison’s Because I Can Clan, we are still in the beginning, but I sense big things to come and wouldn’t be where we are right now without you Alison!! XOXO!

Episode 10 - LOVED IT!!!

by drewtheclue from United States

I have liked and learned a bunch from all of Alison’s episodes as well as from her YouTube channel and her courses. I really really enjoyed Episode 10 though - so many great quotables & gold nuggets were shared...I saved it and will take notes when I listen again!!!

Alison knows E-Commerce

by Lwisdom69 from United States

Seriously I wasn’t into podcast, Meh- But once I heard this “Because I can Life” with Alison J Prince, she’s Amazing in every way!!! She shows you what she is doing & walks you through her process. She is so transparent in every way. She shows us how to kick Fear in the teeth! She’s my go to momma bear!!
I love this podcast-
Your Truly,
Lillian Wisdom

Alison knows her stuff! This works!

by c_beckstrand from United States

I have followed Alison’s journey for the past few years and never met anyone who is so willing to share what she knows to help others. There are so many golden nuggets from these podcasts that you can take and apply to your own business. She is the real deal!! Following her strategy, I now have a business of my own that is THRIVING because of the plan that she has laid out. She is changing lives!! Listen to this podcast- you won’t regret it!

Alison Is The Real Deal

by awishandakiss from United States

Have you ever watched fresh water pour out of a spring? That is what Alison is like. She shares and teaches so much good, over flowing with the very best! Love this podcast! Thank you Alison for wanting and giving the steps to success, for those that you teach. -Melinda L.

Truly An Inspiration!

by Alohalovelife from United States

Alison, I am LOVING your podcast!!! You are crushing it! You are such an inspiration! Thank you for stepping out there to share your story! You have helped me transform my mindset and my life! xoxo Michon

Awesome!

by SACP12 from United States

Love listening to Alison. She is inspiring and gets it. It’s making me move forward and giving confidence in doing so. Kick fear in the teeth.

Thank you!

by Gkeith88 from United States

Loving it all. Thank you for coming out from behind the scenes and sharing your real life. We all benefit from your knowledge and the joy you bring.

Alison knows what she is talking about

by J0di8 from United States

Alison gives such awesome advice on starting and growing a business even kids can do it! That's awesome!

Right to my soul.

by LiviaLight from United States

Alison is genuine, sincere, and has a passion and a fire that gets right to my heart. She has a great desire to help others and shares important content. Her energy and light can help you see possibilities for yourself that you never imagined. We are all humans on this journey of growth. Invite Alison to be part of your journey and you won’t regret it.

Don’t miss out!

by P. Cram from United States

This Is your chance to learn from one of the masters of e-commerce. Alison’s style of savvy business advice in an easy to understand and implement format will take your business to the next level! If you’ve ever thought about starting your own online business the first step is Alison’s program. Trust me, this is the road map to success you’ve been looking for!

Alison Prince is great!

by Shanda2005 from United States

Alison Prince gives great advice about how to run an online business. This is a great podcast. A must listen for entrepreneurs!

An entrepreneur who GETS IT!!!

by AshleyJohnston from United States

This girl just gets it. She understands doubt, she has lived hard days, she knows what it’s like to start from zero.....and then climb out of that crap. I think what I appreciate the most, is that she genuinely enjoys helping others find success. Truly a gift.

Motivating and Inspiring

by Lisa fruit pop princess from United States

Alison is great at motivating and inspiring! She has so much great info that she shares! You definitely need to listen to this if you've ever thought of becoming an entrepreneur!

Pushing forward with Alison

by Gyetvaimom from United States

What a great podcast with such great information on how to build my very own e-commerce business! Alison is relatable, knowledgeable, and very inspiring. I enjoy these episodes while driving my kids to their activities, while making dinner, or while getting ready. Listening to ALISON motivates me to push forward in my new business.

A dreamer/doers podcast heaven!

by ReesieO from United States

Alison is so upbeat, so knowledgeable, and so passionate about what she does! This podcast shows all of that! If you don’t know where to start - START HERE! The information is GOLD! You’re in the right place and this girl will give you wings! Seriously, even if you’re just having a down day - Alison will lift you up and help you believe in your dreams again!

Great Stuff!

by AKP419 from United States

My husband and I are part of Alison’s Clan and we are so excited to have all this extra great info in podcast form!

A must for all entrepreneurs

by heidilynn82 from United States

Love Alison’s Enthusiasm and passion for sharing her knowledge about all things business! It’s a must listen.

Love Alison

by EricaWoodbury from United States

I absolutely loooooove Alison and her emery is so contagious! ❤️

Hopeful:)

by Polka. Lover from United States

So far I’m really excited about this podcast....and hoping it doesn’t all lead to what so many other podcasts I’ve listened to have, which is “I’ll tell you just enough to get you excited and start to believe you can do it, but to really start to change your life it’s time to pay for the membership/course and if you can’t afford it that’s just an excuse”. I’ve become a bit of a pessimist in the self-improvement journey while trying so hard to get started but not having much cash to do so. I’m that mom stuck living credit card payment to credit card payment which doesn’t exactly leave money to get started. I’m hoping this podcast is what I’ve been searching for to guide me on how to finally get something going that will bring hope and real change for my future. I love Allison and I have faith that she’s who can help me change my life!♥️

LOVE HER!!!

by IChooseYouCo from United States

Alison is AWESOME! She knows her stuff and is so generous in giving and teaching others. I am so glad I found her to help me along this journey of e commerce.

Fab!

by vbl<3 from United States

I’m new to podcasts, but wow...what a fabulous cast! I’m a fan and will be continuing to listen!

So much help and valuable information!!

by ealshfs from United States

We love Alison!! She gives such valuable information on how to run your online business. Through this podcast she will help you, inspire you, and encourage you. Through following her course my husband and I have sold over 15K so far in one of our businesses and are headed towards the 10k mark with our second business. Thank you Alison!!

LOVE the heart and deep dive!

by XefishX from United States

Thank you so much for the useful information and VALUE in these episodes- I’m totally hooked!

Love Alison Prince

by irsaguar from United States

Thank you for this amazing podcast. I cannot get enough of Alison and her amazing knowledge of E commerce, marketing and selling online she is awesome!!!

Because I can!

by shesgotdetermination from United States

Alison is a great mentor! She has a great amount of enthusiasm and determination towards her businesses. She really tries to motivate the clanners and get us excited about our businesses. I’ve learned a lot from the FB group! There’s so much information there. Thank you everyone for supporting each other!

So worth listening to!

by Orpheus Phunk from United States

Alison KNOWS what she’s talking about. She teaches from the knowledge of having taken the steps herself, to launch and scale profitable businesses. This podcast inspires you to stop making excuses and get to work building your own business. I love it!

Inspiration

by JLDiaz10x from United States

Alison is such an inspiration! She’s a real life woman who you can relate to! Love listening to her!!

You Need to Listen to This!

by Brookie Jane Boutique from United States

Listen to the Because I Can Life podcast if you want to be successful. Alison shares the “secrets” of making your business work. By the end of episode two, I knew the approach I needed to take in my new business to help my products sell themselves. Thanks Alison!

Listen! You’ll love it!

by llc732 from United States

Alison is amazing! She encourages you, helps you, and strengthens your resolve to do more, do better!

Thank you!!

by jesygirl from United States

Thank you for sharing all of your knowledge and excitement! It is contagious. I am glad you finally came out with a podcast.

Mind Blown!

by LuluAndHarley from United States

Wow! So amazing!!! I love these podcasts because as I listen to them I feel as if Alison is speaking directly to me. It’s like she’s in my brain and truly understands what I’m going through with my business- then helps me continue to the next step! Her voice is cheerful, yet calming and she is full of reassurance- I think she believes in me more than I believe in myself at this point!!!:)

Amazing information

by kdirk25 from United States

These podcasts have amazing information to help you with your business!! They are insightful, and a must for anyone who wants to sell anything including you Mr. Eskimo who I will sell ice to... because Allison tells you how.

Inspirational

by DoeRaeMegan from United States

Alison is the one who has inspired me to start something of my own. Her guidance makes magic happen! Only good things come from Alison!!!

Wonderful

by stacemt from United States

Allison and her business strategy have had my attention for awhile now. I am thrilled to be able to listen and apply her wisdom from these podcasts.

So inspiring!

by raeggett from United States

I love all that I have learned from Alison and her amazing way of leading and teaching so many of us to create our own businesses!

Inspirating and Motivating

by Jgb9 from United States

Alison is the real deal! She is all of us.... where we have all been and truly wants to help us succeed. She shares so much wisdom and knowledge and has blessed many lives!

Great Info

by Tam4040 from United States

I appreciate the information that Alison is providing as she teaches us how to overcome fear and self doubt while encouraging how we CAN have the lives we want!

Femmepreneur

by Suncreature from United States

Allison is so inspiring. She is so supportive and gives us so many tools to help us reach our goals. She is the ultimate #Femmepreneur. She is empowered and wants all of us to feel empowered as well. “Because I can” is such an empowering statement that can lead us to success. I feel so blessed to have found her course and podcast.

So inspirational and motivating!!

by jayveetally from United States

This was such a motivating podcast! The priceless information she spills about how to be successful selling online is interesting and exciting. I can’t wait to hear more!!

Keep the podcasts coming!

by SHefel87 from United States

Alison has such an enthusiastic outlook and so much knowledge to share regarding business ventures. Have thoroughly enjoyed the first few ‘Because I Can’ podcasts. I look forward to listening to her future episodes.

I can? Yes, I can!

by Too hard to review from United States

Allison does a great job of punching a hole in all of your excuses for why you can’t do this. She’s a down-to-earth cheerleader for everyone. Great podcast.

Obsessed!

by Hidequa from United States

Holy cow- Alison I can feel your energy through my phone as I listened to your podcasts today! I’ve just recently stumbled across your Instagram and even two weeks ago watched a webinar by you as well. I can not tell you how much I feel like you are talking to me, yet I feel myself hearing you, as if I am the one talking. I have felt for a long time that I have something bigger than me I need to do to help people but like the lady in your podcast with the epi-pen, I’m kinda closer to that side of things right now. BUT I feel like I am on my way and I hear your passion for helping people. I can’t wait to listen to more of your podcasts and see where this will take me in the future. Thank you for sharing your loving heart with others.

Get inspired!

by DistinctlyDawning from United States

Alison is so inspiring, knowledgeable and encouraging! She’s been there, done that and continues doing so which allows her to provide real time helps for your business. You can’t resist but to feel uplifted and ready to go after your dreams after listening to her!

Thank you

by clanner90 from United States

I appreciate your passion and for sharing

The Real Deal

by momof5forlife from United States

This girl right here is why I am still building my online business. Thank you so much Alison for the encouragement and great teaching tips! Love it!

Fairly new to podcasts

by simplyLudic from United States

I have listened to one other before and enjoyed it. I am looking forward to Allison’s as she has so much good stuff to share.
Thanks Allison for doing this.

Thanks

by DeVonya M from United States

Alison thanks for sharing you and your thoughts and ideas!! I have made changes in my life thanks to you!!!

Inspiring & Amazing

by DoohikeyDesigns from United States

Alison is the real deal! She’s real as she inspires you to reach your best life. She gives you glimpses into how she has made multi dollar million businesses. Alison was called to serve others to help others reach the dreams we have always wanted to achieve. She inspires to help us Rise Up to what God wants us to become!
It just keeps getting better and better!

Awesome!

by SACP12 from United States

She is such an awesome coach. It will open up doors you never thought you could go through!

Great information

by ACP2545 from United States

Alison is so inspiring and gives such great info

The Best Podcast!!

by Micah Hyde from United States

I have been starting up my own business and this podcast has given me so much motivation to finally get everything done!!! I started thinking up tagalongites.com about 2 years ago and my dream is finally a reality !! Thanks Allison for all the motivation!

Love it!

by Shanluvsry from United States

Love her story, love her driver, love her willingness to share! This lady ROCKS!

Because I can is the best podcast out there!

by GmaSheriE from United States

Alison and her team are inspiring and changing lives! Join the clan! Because you can!!

Love this!

by kcraven683 from United States

Alison you are awesome, way to go! And thank you for this!

You are amazing

by StazzyLynn from United States

You are an inspiration. Truly talented.

Positivity

by sophster78 from United States

If you want to feel good and get excited listen to Alison. Her enthusiasm is contagious and she is just always happy.

The best podcast!

by Bloodbath000 from United States

She is the most honest, intelligent business woman out there. Love listening to her!

Inspiring

by Snyder,A from United States

I love how down to earth and real Alison is. Motivating podcast!

So encouraging

by lovesstraberries4 from United States

Alison always has relevant content and always so encouraging.

Inspirational and Real!

by Greenski Beanski from United States

I love listening to Alison because she shares from her heart! You can hear the passion in her voice and how much she loves what she’s doing. I’m excited to be able to listen to her marketing wisdom so I can put it in place in my business. Thank you for being real! Thank you for putting yourself out there and kicking fear in the teeth so I can learn to do the same!

Treasure Trove of Expert Goodness

by linescrew from United States

If you're looking to learn about building a successful online business, following your passion, and drive from a real person who practices what she preaches, this is the place! Alison is passionate about others successes- you can hear it in her voice. Against her norm of staying out of the spotlight and working behind the scenes Alison pushed past her fears of putting her face out there to follow her inner drive to teach others how she has been uber successful in several online businesses. She is still active in maintaining several online businesses and has taught me (and thousands more) how to build our own businesses. She is unselfish and wants success for all (and teaches how to do it without going into debt!). She gives so much to help others build their own dreams. Alison is the first mentor that I have found that doesn't hold back in sharing each piece to the complicated puzzle of successful business practices from idea to distribution to customer care. She doesn't promise magical overnight success- but gives you the keys you need and reminds you that your success depends on your dedication and hard work. I can't wait to see what her future episodes bring. Thanks Alison, for overdelivering yet again.

She’s Changing Lives!

by TaraGlutting from United States

Alison gives all her time and energy toward teaching people like you and me how to start a business and make all your dreams come true! This podcast is inspiring!

The Real Deal

by CecOlpin from United States

Alison is down to earth and relatable yet also extremely knowledgeable and savvy in her approach to business. You will enjoy and come away feeling empowered after listening to her amazing wisdom!

Real deal!!!!

by AnnieBoz from United States

Alison is the real deal and super legit. She knows her stuff and has helped me reach my goals plus more on many occasions. She is sincere and truly wants to help others and loves to see them grow. She is very motivating and she continues to inspire me in my life and with my business goals.

Love love love Allison!!

by BreakingYarn from United States

I was so happy to see Allison put out a podcast! She’s a huge inspiration and I admire her and her business sense! Already loving all the episodes!

Alison is Thee Female Entrepreneur To Follow!

by JaimeCross77 from United States

She’s been around the block, built a family and multiple, multimillion dollar businesses - what’s not to love about this HERo! Alison speaks from her heart and years of proven results. Would not be without this podcast in my back pocket.

Info needs to be consistent

by joness59 from United States

I missed that you mentioned the link to your bundle at the beginning of the podcast. At the end you mentioned the site is becauseicanlife.com/bundle. This is an invalid URL. I spent time trying to figure out the link until I saw it posted in the notes of your podcast. My feedback is to make sure the info you provide is consistent. Other than that it was a real good podcast. Hope this was helpful.
Stephen Jones (your old Boise neighbor)

I LOVE MY MOM❤️❤️

by bridges!! from United States

WOOT WOOT!!!!!! Gooooooooooooo MOM YOUR THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She’s the coolest little buddy

by Emmaisbeast from United States

She’s really cool and everybody should and will
Love her and this was the most spectacular thing in the whole universe because she is an angel

5 starz

by camila_hernandez from United States

she is so awesome and i love this podcast so much!!!!

AMAZING!!!

by Dad in church from United States

Seriously love you!

Best Podcast!

by Thesimpsoncrew3 from United States

Alison is so encouraging and a wealth of information! Real, Genuine and Relatable! So thankful she took the leap as she has paved a way for us to do the same!!!

Stop whatever you are doing and subscribe

by 534426783 from United States

Seriously, if you are looking for a heart-centered coach who is going to break it down for you and hold your hand to the online marketplace, this is your leader. Follow her. Do what she says. Listen to everything she says. Take notes. Take action. Rinse and repeat. So happy this podcast has been born!!!

Wow! So powerful!

by BevSchweig from United States

I am loving Alison’s podcast! She is so down to earth and honest! You can hear the passion she has for helping others in her voice! She has over delivered once again. Can’t wait to hear more!

Inspired!

by Jen 850 from United States

Alison’s enthusiasm is infectious! I want to get started right now!

Love!!!

by Beastajt from United States

I have been a huge fan of Alison for years now! So excited she has launched a podcast!

Thank You Alison!

by Savjack28 from United States

So glad Alison is now doing a podcast. Very inspiring!

Because I can! Love,Love, Love!

by Mysterious____ from United States

This podcast is really great! Alison is such an inspiration!

So inspiring!

by Heather of come home from United States

Thank you Alison! You always know just what to say to help me get out of my way. I’m for sure going to start recognizing those fake negative thoughts and turn them around. ❤️

Finally!!

by shellcoates from United States

It’s about time Alison made a podcast!! I’ve been waiting! She is a professional business mastermind, yet so relatable as a mother and woman. Go Alison!!!

The Because I can Life Podcast

by My Beautiful Child And Me from United States

Alison is the real deal. She doesn’t just preach and leave us on our own. Alison works her online business right along with us and teaches from her own experiences. She shares the highs and lows and gives us the tools we need to succeed. She is kind and welcoming and supports us even when we feel we are failing. The community she has created for us to find like minded people who want to make a difference is the best group I have ever been a part of. I love that she is always up dating her course that we have life long access. The fact that she takes the time to do FB lives a few times a week where she is open to all our questions is remarkable. I am grateful I found her. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or a seasoned business owner, Alison offer something for all of us. Connie Leonard

Real and Inspiring

by lastev from United States

Alison delivers relevant content that works. Most importantly, she is your biggest cheerleader and keeps you motivated to work hard and kick fear!

An inspirational podcast

by Dude202 from United States

I love listening to podcasts to inspire myself in my business growth. An enjoyable and helpful podcast!

BEST COACH EVER!!!

by Oak&Willow from United States

If you are looking to start your own e-commerce business, you will be hard pressed to find a more honest, passionate, caring person than Alison. She puts it all out there for you to see how to be successful. This podcast is going to change lives!

All Entrepreneurs Must Hear This

by seesnow99 from United States

I’ve been following Alison for a while now. I bought into her 0-100K system. My store is up & running thanks to her & a lot of hard work.
If you want to have an e-commerce business & have the best support team ever, look no further. I’ve done tons of webinars & online research. Nothing compares to what I have learned from Alison. Her online Facebook group is nothing short of phenomenal. You can post your struggle & ask for help. Five hours later, you come back to loads of encouraging posts from fellow “clanners” who have been there & they’re offering helpful advice.
I have been in her course since May 2018 & have watched her course get better & better. That’s because she’s constantly adding to it.
The best part about all of this is that Alison is genuine. She really wants to see her students succeed. This podcast is just another way to encourage us & all of you at the same time. I’ve met her in person more than once & her sincerity is more than evident.
Sit back & enjoy the podcast! Better yet, take that jump & come join us in the Because I Can Clan!

Yes I can!!

by A. Nieto from United States

Yes!! Loving the podcast! Real and raw reminding us all that we all start somewhere and we can each be successful.

So. Much. Info.

by An Interpreter from United States

I've learned so much about being an entrepreneur from Alison. Her teachings have changed my thinking, my shopping, and my future. I'm so happy she now has a podcast!!

Yessssss!

by ryanhelms from United States

Thank you Allison for sharing all your knowledge with us!

Amazing!

by sarakappas from United States

Alison is always so fun to listen to and as usual, is giving us amazing content that can really change your life!

So true and authentic!

by Daxy111 from United States

Alison is seriously the best and most talented business mom I've learned from! You rock!!

Perfect Morning Pick Me Up!

by Arichards130 from United States

This podcast is the perfect morning pick me up to kick my behind in gear and get motivated to live my best life everyday!
I’m still in the beginning stages of my journey, but I’ve seen, heard and felt the real life stories of Alison’s students who continually inspire, support and encourage me to keep walking my walk and doing the work to realize my goals!
Like Alison said, usually the best place to start is the beginning, so just jump in!

Lucky us!

by Wild Azalea from United States

Alison’s passion for helping others comes through loud and clear. I have already learned so much from her and look forward to future podcasts.

So motivating!

by LexHemming from United States

I’m loving this podcast. I feel like I CAN do whatever I put my mind to. It’s so nice to have such a positive, motivational, sincere example of what you can do when you trust yourself and step out of your comfort zone. Can’t wait for more episodes.

INCREDIBLE!!

by Dragonmaster191 from United States

Seriously Alison is just INCREDIBLE!!! She is such a huge inspiration! She is so honest and real and you know she honestly truly cares about helping others succeed!!! I know she loves celebrating us when we learn from her and take steps to change our lives for the better....Because I Can!!!!! Thank you!!!!!

My new favorite podcast!

by JBest4 from United States

I’m loving Alison’s podcast! She has been so successful in her businesses and to have the privilege to learn from her is incredibly valuable. I could listen to her all day because she is so genuine and relatable. Her passion for helping others really shines through too.

Awesome content!!!!!

by dtorell from United States

She is so inspiring and has made the mistakes so we don’t have to. Thanks for your drive to help others help others

Amazing

by Sarah Because I Can from Canada

I was never one to listen to podcasts. But now I am hooked! Alison is brilliant I am learning and continue to learn from her. She knows the e-commerce business inside and out implement what she teaches it’s amazing! I am definitely enjoying the journey of the Because I Can Life.

Like Rachel Hollis...but better

by Erin_Verb7 from United States

Alison is inspiring and makes you believe in yourself, but she doesn’t stop with the warm fuzzies. She takes you by the hand and shows you how to turn your money making dream into reality with action steps designed to help you create your own success, not just dream about it.

Your Millionaire Best Friend

by VinaHowell from United States

Alison’s podcast feels like an invigorating conversation with a best friend. If you’re interested in a life of “more”, learning marketing and e-commerce, and hearing someone whose persistence and authenticity is unmatched, this is the podcast for you.

Awesome sauce!

by Coolcv1998 from United States

Alison you are in your element!! You are so easy to listen to. This is as real as it gets. Can’t wait for more episodes. Add this to your list for sure everyone!! Just awesome!

Inspiring!!

by Olga Bella from United States

Alison just makes me want to jump up and cheer. She is so inspiring!

✨SO much goodness!

by Briestarr from United States

Alison shares so much goodness in this podcast! If you want tangible tips to take your biz to the next level and get inspired at the the same time, listen in!

So good!

by Trendytikes from United States

I love that she’s not only shelling out entrepreneur inspiration, she’s giving out real step by step advise for moving forward with business goals!!

So motivational! Love it!

by elizathere321 from United States

Love all the free advice Alison!

Awesome Alison!

by Chelli C from United States

I’m such a fan of Alison. Her podcast didn’t disappoint!

Rockstar!

by Christine Michelle James from United States

Looking forward to this! She rocks whatever she touches!

YESSS!! About time!!!

by LINDS100k from United States

Love Alison J. Prince! Can’t wait to learn more from her in this amazing podcast!!

Ready to learn!

by tjshrews from United States

Ready to soak up more info from this lady and her amazing family. Gives great practical tips for
growing an online business! And...I just love that her whole family is involved!

The best Cheerleader!

by KimHenrie from United States

When you are feeling like a failure, you need Alison to cheer you on and to keep you going. She’s always reminding you that you were made for more.

From a Dads POV

by StartupDadHQ.com from United States

So happy Alison has launched this podcast. So refreshing to find parent entrepreneurs who are crushing it in business but at the same time being REAL, TRANSPARENT, and VULNERABLE about what it's really like to build a business with a family (without sacrificing the family)!
So many families out there are struggling working 9-5 or more and still unable to provide for their families. Alison's journey is a tremendous inpiration that it doesn't have to be like that and as a Entrepeneur myself I'm looking forward to some solid advice and tips through this podcast.
Thank you Alison!!

Left me wanting more!!!

by kristin.sparks from United States

Alison I love your passion for helping others succeed, it comes through loud and clear. Can’t wait for the next one.

Exciting

by Queen Bee of three from United States

I’m excited to see how this podcast evolves! We all need a pep talk now and then but I can’t wait until Alison digs in to some more juicy details for those of us already working the program. And I would love to hear interviews with successful fellow clambers. Thanks again!

Get Into This Community!

by MindYourMomentum from United States

You will never find a more supportive community anywhere else online than in Alison’s Because I Can Clan. Beginner? Everyone’s cheering for you to succeed. Intermediate? Everyone’s cheering for your continued success. Advanced? Everyone’s still lifting you higher. No matter your level, you’ll learn something new every week, if not every day. So excited to now have a podcast to listen to on my daily walks! #becauseican #becauseicanclan

Most Caring Coach❣️

by 23569 from United States

Alison is the best inspiring coach to help people start their own online businesses. If you have a dream to do this, know that Alison can help, inspire, encourage, and nicely kick you in the butt if that’s what you need! You can do it with her help and with the help of her team, which includes her husband Jared and her children who themselves made $100k in less than a year. Legit legit legit! You can live the Because I Can life!

Life changing!

by rubyandedie from United States

Alison knows her stuff when it comes to e-commerce. If you have ever wanted to start your own business she is the lady to follow!! Not only that but she helps you build confidence and belief in yourself!! Seriously listen to what she says!

So Grateful!

by Brosky1213 from United States

Alison is such an inspiration!

Love Alison’s authenticity

by Sawshee from United States

Alison has a great way of sharing her passions as if she is already your best friend. She’s is truly authentic and wants to bring value to as many lives as she can. I’m loving this already! Keep them coming!!!

Beca Miller

by Beca Miller from United States

“Because I am not going to settle!” Alison is full of gold! I strongly recommend listening to her podcasts and learn how you don’t have to settle and can reach your dreams.

Just WOW!

by Walter Gro from United States

Alison is so inspiring and informative!
We were so moved by her story of creating her business and changing her families future that we’ve got our kids listening too!
Love it

Love love love!

by mlci from United States

Wherever you are in your entrepreneurial journey Alison has the message you need. ❤️

Not alone

by melnemlove from United States

Having your own business can feel like you are all alone. Alison and her program make me feel like I have a personal coach and cheerleader. Can’t wait to see how far I can go...because I can!!!

Alison is the expert

by Mm1982us from United States

Alison isn’t just the expert, she is a mom entrepreneur and knows real life experiences and feelings and helps you overcome yourself and get out there! Excited you finally have a podcast!

Best ever

by nyecreate from United States

This is will help anyone no matter where they are in trying to run their life and business.

A podcast full of awesomeness

by JLO52006 from United States

This podcast talks about the real life of a success entrepreneur, Alison Prince, and other like it. She tells you how to run a business and have a life too. She’s down to earth, tell it like it is presence, is exactly what people want to hear. She’s honest, open and funny. Take a listen, and you won’t regret it.

Speaks from the heart

by Lisa Dinsmore from United States

Alison has a great knowledge of business and shares that with us. She truly cares and wants other to succeed just like she has. I’m so excited to continue learning from her as she shares her knowledge.

I’m learning new things

by Trippy6911 from United States

My garage is full of stuff that I can sell, I had no idea where to start. My cousin recommended I listen to Alison and truth be told I’m beginning to have an idea on how to get my business going. I truly recommend listen to her or even watching her YouTube videos.

Authenticity

by Samantha Richardson from United States

She’s the real deal and no Bs, her passion to help others shows in everything she does. I love following/listening/ watching Alison because shes knowledgeable and is taking you through her experience! I’m soooooo excited for a podcast! Can’t wait to hear what more I can learn from this woman!

Thank you, Alison!

by stacyj:) from United States

Thank you for your words today! Very inspiring to me! Can’t wait for the next!

The best!!

by Lacegan from United States

Alison knows her stuff in the e-commerce world and is so great at showing others the path to success too!

This is the best person & podcast to learn E-Commerce

by Viciousinc from Canada

Alison is hands down one of the best people on the planet to learn e-commerce from. Not only has she successfully gone through the process and failed forward along the way, she also shares everything and does it with such genuine grace and humility. It’s hard to find people that walk the walk and do it in a way that lifts up the people around them. This is that person. Listen and more importantly apply everything she says. Thank you Alison!!

Life Changing

by N Family from United States

Alison is an expert in her field. If you want to change your financial future this is the podcast for you!

Real Deal

by Mashie422 from United States

She is so authentic and her messages are heartfelt and real. So glad to finally have a podcast from Alison!!

Got my wheels spinning

by iRunOnEmpty from United States

Alison has a way of getting you to not only think about your goals and your dreams, but Act on your goals and your Dreams. I’m ready for that Because I Can Life!

Alison Prince WALKS THE WALK Like No Other Person I Know

by Supreme Dragon Slayer 69 from United States

Full Disclosure.
I met Alison and her amazing family just a few years ago and in that time I have witnessed an incredibly humble person step into even more of her greatness.
This is someone who chases Impact over Significance in everything she does.
In a world where most “big marketing gurus” who just yell louder to be heard and rely mostly on manufacturing celebrity to become a house hold name... Alison has been actually walking the walk for decades.
She is family focused.
She is heart centered.
But make no mistake.
She is one of the most BRILLIANT Marketers and Business Builders in the world.
She had proven herself time and time again on her multiple businesses in multiple niches.
All.
From.
The.
Ground.
Up.
So yes. I know her.
Which makes me qualified to write this review bc if you do have an opportunity to ever meet her in real life, feel good knowing she is the same in real life as she is on this podcast.
Dave

The real deal

by Utah PT from United States

If you really want to know what it takes to change your life then you better listen. Alison knows what it takes to start and grow your new online business and love your entrepreneur life.

So happy Alison finally is releasing a podcast!

by Arushi-315 from United States

So ready to listen to all these episodes.

Transcript…

Alison 0:00
Welcome to today's podcast. I'm bringing in Mel Abraham. Now, I met Mel about a month, month and a half ago, up at the Brendon Burchard mastermind. And I'll tell you what, we hit off like we were best friends, and have been best friends for years. And, over the last couple weeks, I've heard him talk about the finances and what is happening in the world right now, and how he is watching businesses that are in fear, take their dollars and turn them into pennies. And then other businesses that are able to step back, take pennies and turn them into dollars. So, I wanted to bring Mel on to talk to you about how we can fortify our businesses financially in an unknown kind of a chaotic world right now. Now, in this episode, Mel dives into sales problems versus profit problems. What we can do to avoid and to skirt around those issues. He also talks about how we will absolutely recover from the financial dips that are happening right now, but he is very afraid of one thing that we will not recover from if we don't get a grasp on it. And I'm going to leave that part as a hook, so that you will listen to the episode. And then in the end, Mel talks about something called the Cares Act. And that is something that was just signed by the government to help out small businesses. He's going to talk about if you qualify for it, if you should take it, if you should not take it, and a lot of the details that just kind of seems a little bit gray right now. So, today's episode, get ready to dig in to find out how you can prepare financially in your business. Let's get started.

Intro 1:55
Hey, you are listening to the Because I Can Life Podcast, where we believe we can decide our own income, choose happiness, kick fear in the teeth and never ever stop. Why? Because we can. I'm your host, Alison J. Prince and I went from being a junior high science teacher to building four online, multi-million dollar businesses, with four kids at my feet. Each week, I'm bringing you real conversations that have led me as well as other experts to step into our dream online business lifestyle so that you can get the answers you need to craft your because I can as well take that first step and commit now to your Because I Can Life by downloading your free personal bundle at AlisonJPrince.com/Bundle

Alison 2:47
Okay. So, we met what, three, four weeks ago?

Mel 2:51
What was it? It wasn't that long ago.

Alison 2:53
I know. But it... Doesn't it feel like it was three years ago?

Mel 2:57
Yeah, it does. It does

Alison 2:59
Yeah. So, anyway.

Mel 3:00
But I... three years ago, like a long lost friend, not three years ago, like a horrendous relationship.

Alison 3:06
True. Very, very true. I'll take that. I'll take that. And you start talking to me about the frameworks, and how I could teach better, and how you teach thought leaders to be thought leaders. And so, I went into my community, just this last week, and I taught them three or four frameworks that were all drawn out. And now they're using those framework names in my community.

Mel 3:29
Ooooh, I love it.

Alison 3:31
They're saying, "Go back to this framework. Go back to this framework." And so, just bringing in the simplicity of what I teach, super, super valuable, but that's not where your roots are. Your roots are a CPA.

Mel 3:44
Yeah, it is.

Alison 3:45
Okay. So you tell

Mel 3:46
the funny thing is I've learned the frameworks from the CPA to

Alison 3:49
Ah, okay, so tell us that story. How did you CPA, two frameworks to now the thought leader of thought leaders, but such Genius on financials and especially financials and crisis that we're going, everybody's going through right now. Just spill the beans now just start talking.

Mel 4:09
So here's the deal. I started out as a CPA by education, but I've always had this entrepreneurial spirit in my heart and but I took the traditional CPA route for just long enough to realize I didn't want to be in the traditional CPA route. I transferred into the consulting department where I was just I was doubting this and I learned how to value businesses. So I spent most of my time as a CPA, valuing businesses buying and selling businesses, but then I got involved in people asking me to testify as a financial expert at trial. Well, the interesting thing is that you go to a trial and you have a jury of 911 how many people you have on a jury? And the next worst thing to watching DNA evidence is financial evidence. And it's just horrible and I'd like the opposing expert would get up there and They, they would do the math and get on a chart. And they would do a bunch of math for the jury, the jury doesn't spend any time understanding it.

And I would go up and I would say, is it okay if I draw a picture for you and tell you a story. And I literally would take all of my numbers and the things that I did, and draw in a framework and a picture and tell a story around the numbers. So when the jury went back to the jury deliberation room, the only thing they remembered was a story and the picture and not the numbers from the opposing expert. And so that's how it all kind of came about was how do you communicate persuasively and influentially where people will see the value? They'll understand it, they'll take complexity and move it to simplicity, and they'll get it and they'll be able to kind of regurgitate it or repeat it, because now there was a way there was a framework in their mind to do that. And then I started studying the influence and all of that stuff. Because I think even though we can talk about, we're going to talk about numbers and that kind of stuff, the greatest skill we can, nurtures our ability to communicate.

Alison 6:07
Agreed, okay, so I need you to start digging into these frameworks, this thought around what is going on financially in our world. So you know, I teach a lot of e-commerce students how to start, grow, scale their business, and it's a little uncertain right now. And there's a pandemic happening, and we're watching the stock market crash and how do we control those thoughts? How do we take back our confidence in moving forward? And then, of course, I want to talk about this Cares Act that was just signed. So lots to cover.

Mel 6:46
So I think the first thing is that I would say is for all of us, we need to take a breath. And we really need to take a moment and to just stop and just look at where we're at. If we take the stock market, and I have a graphic that I use when I present that takes the stock market from 2001 to today. And it's got all the ups and downs from 2001 to today, and you've got the 2001 2002 recession, you got the 2008 recession. We've got what we're in the middle of now. And when you look at it, like you look at the end of that chart, in the last three weeks, there's this really long down drop in the chart, which is what everyone is looking at right now they're gone, the market has dropped eight 910 thousand points is dropped 30%. It is a scary place to be. But I think we need to give it some perspective because when you actually look at the chart from 2001 to 2020, or even longer, the general trend of that chart of the market is up. It is up in the long term.

And then we can look back and go well has anything like this happened before. Here's the thing. We had a strong economy before this coronavirus came in and things were going well, people were doing well, unemployment was down, interest rates were down everything the market was up, everything was good. And then enter a health scare. But a health scare of a global proportion a magnitude that we probably never imagined. I think the last time it was a pandemic was 1918. It's been a lot of years. The point being is that the trigger to this was not an infrastructure problem in the economy. The trigger to this was, Hey, wait a second, we have a health scare that is becoming a pandemic that is permeating the world, people are dying from it. And the way to be able to stop the spread of this at least until we get our arms around it is to put everyone into their homes and say stay home, which means shutting down businesses, which means shutting down the economy. And so we have a health scare that turned into an economic problem.

And I think that's an important thing because when we are able to corral the health scare when we're able to get our arms around this virus and we will there are brilliant minds working on it all around. And we will that will change the dynamics of everything for us again. Now, the question is how long? How long that's going to take because if it takes another month, it's one thing if it takes six months, it's a whole nother game for us. But I think we need to be prepared. Where the psyche is, though, where I'm concerned about it is this is that the health scare turns into an economic problem which will turn into an emotional problem, a psychological problem. I agree, the longer this goes on, because what we've done is we've siloed people and bless you for doing what you're doing and, and holding the events and keeping people connected because they're going to be starved for connection. And I can't imagine I mean, you adore being with your kids and your husband and I adore would be with my wife. I can't imagine me in a bad relationship and having to be stuck inside. Gone. We're going to kill each other. It's just so I think that there are some emotional psychological impacts that will come down the road if we're not careful.

There's going to be a PTSD to this of sorts, if you will, that can come and that's going to be the hardest thing to heal from if we're not careful. But I think one of the problems is this. We're spending our time right now. watching the news. We're watching, you know what's happening with the coronavirus right now what's happening with the stock market right now? I mean, we're watching the ticker on the stock market just as much as we're watching the ticker on coronavirus, and saying the number of cases has just gone up. I mean, it's like we're watching a telethon. But what that means is that we're taking all our of our focus and all of our time and spending it focusing it on the things that we can't control. And if we're staring at the things we can't control and the things we can't control are negative. how's that gonna make us feel unproductive uncertain, scared, fearful, and start freaking us out and putting us in a freeze. And that's what's happening with the marketplace is that they're not looking at the stock market and the economy and saying, What is it over a long term period 2001. Two that, you know, take any five to eight year period and it's an uptrend. What they're doing is they're taking a myopic view, because in crisis a lot of times we we start to think just now what, what's in front of us. And when we take a myopic, narrow view, we can focus in on the downside of the market. And if I literally went three weeks before the markets way up, but it's because I'm focusing, it's where I'm putting my attention. The market will come back when I'm not sure yet, but it will come back and so we got to play a long term game here.

Alison 11:51
One of the things I heard you say I think it was Thursday, you are doing a webinar and you talked about how we can recover From the finances, we always have, we always will or smart. But it's the emotional part that we've got to control because that's going to be a lot harder to recover from. And so how, what are your recommendations on stepping away from it? Yes, turning off social media is one thing, right? We all need a social media fast. But what are some other things where we can disconnect when maybe our storefronts are stopped? Or maybe people are getting scared to buy online right now? How do we separate those two things?

Mel 12:34
So I think there's a couple things you said get off social media, I think we actually need to be vigilant guards standing guard at the gates of our mind right now. We speak to and I hate to say it, family, friends, you know, just the same. If they're going to feed me with nothing but conspiracy theory, negativity and demise. I'm going to caution that I'm not going to allow it in The problem with allowing it in is how we soak it in if we soak it in and take it in without our own critical thinking, and our critical research to see, let me test it, let me fact test it. Let me do my own research come to my own conclusions, versus taking it for what it is, then we tend to, and that's why I use the term soak it in we we take it cellularly into our system, which doesn't feel good. I'm not exempt. There's times that that I felt the uncertainty and the fear and everything creeping in. I'm looking at my portfolio and I'm going oh my gosh, dang it just a few weeks ago, it was a lot higher, and I gotta check myself. So that's one thing that I think we need to do. Second, along those lines is Who are you surrounding and who are you having conversations with? There's a handful of people that I'm consistently having conversations with, that are not being Pollyanna about it in the sense of of ignoring what's going on, but trying to be real and say what can we do? In other words, if there are things I can't control, then let's make a list of the things I can control.

And let's start looking and carving away at the things that I can control, how I approach things, what I'm doing if they shut my storefront down, and I can have customers come into the store, there's nothing we can do about that, because our hands are tied for the storefront. That doesn't mean that we can't start to look at how do we still serve our customers? How do we still make sales? Is there another way we step back from it and say, Can I do it online? can I provide other services with my skills and everything else that still serve and does a couple things? One, it brings in revenues to its serves the audience that you are serving before the market that you were serving before. And three, more importantly, makes you feel productive? And I think that's where you start to what's gonna cause the economic or the emotional All psychological impact is the lack of productivity. People are going to feel they're going to feel like their life means nothing because they're doing.

Alison 15:08
Yes. Yeah, I know how it feels when I'm stuck. And I don't feel the momentum and I'm not producing. It's heavy. It is super heavy. Yeah, yeah, it is. Okay, so now dive into how can people fortify their businesses financially right now?

Mel 15:25
So I think the first thing to look at is first, there's two places we need to look one, do we have a sales problem? In other words, is the revenue stopping? If the revenue stopping, we need to find ways to increase revenue. So because there's two levels of problems, we either have a sales problem, we have a profit problem. And so if our sales are declining, we need to fix our sales problem, because with the sales declining, our profits will decline. Okay? But if our sales are staying strong, then we have a profit problem cash flow problem, then we got to look at expenses. So there's two things places we got to look at. One is what's going on with our sales, the inflow of cash into our business and start to look at our revenue sources drying up, or our revenue sources in the future going to dry up. If this goes on and on, in fact, understanding how much runway you have becomes really important. If you're a business that makes income from one source of income, like I was talking with someone this morning that's in the physical therapy business. Well, they're not putting hands on people right now. And their sole source of income is being a physical therapist. They're in trouble. My dentist, they shut his doors right now.

They're in trouble. This is one of the things I'd love everyone to think about. As we move forward. We'll talk about how do we get through this piece. But moving forward, I think it's imperative for everyone to start thinking like a portfolio entrepreneurs something that I've talked about for years. We talk about investment diversification, put your assets in different investments in different assets, you diversify your portfolio, you reduce your risk. And so you'll have things in, in the stock market and things in real estate. We do that to diversify risk. But we never talk about how do we diversify our income. We all look on a sole source of income, we either get a salary, we have our business, and our business is our greatest wealth-building tool, but it's our greatest point of failure at the same time if we don't run it, right. And so what I would look at is, is moving forward, is making sure that we have multiple revenue streams coming into the business. How do I make money from what I know or what I'm producing from different angles? And that way, if one turns off, the likelihood of all of them turning off like we're at right now, if one turns off, I still can sustain myself. So that's moving forward right now though. A couple of things that I think that we ought to do. Do is one reach out to your clients. And I'm not saying send an email. I'm not saying send a text, I am saying you pick up the phone the old fashioned way. And you have a conversation just the other day I belong to an organization called the Magic Castle.

It's a private magic club that was founded in the 1960s in the Victorian mansion, and I've been a member for many, many years. And literally the other day, I get a phone call from one of the board members saying, Hey, this is so and so from the board. And we're just calling our members just to see how you're doing. And we just don't, especially in times like this, we don't do that. And sometimes our customers just didn't even know need to know that they're being heard. And now through those conversations, they might even give you an idea of what they need right now that you can provide that creates a revenue source for you that you didn't otherwise think about or it keeps them on a membership. or on a recurring billing because they now feel a different connection. And you can then turn around and build into it something else. So one of the things you can do with this is this whole idea of once you understand what they need, how can you give them what they need, for less than what they thought it would cost?

In other words, more value, even more value for the same. So figuring out how to increase the value or same value for less. Now that may not be I don't mean discounting that may be changing their payment structure. That may be deferring payments. But what we're trying to do is in the spirit of saying this is temporary. Now, I don't know what temporary means. 30 days, 60 days, 90-days, I'm telling my people that I want you to create a six-week plan I want a 120-day plan and 180-day plan. We want to build out this because we don't have the things we don't control is the timing on this virus and then getting an arm around it. I heard that there. This morning they’re fast-tracking up a medication through FDA testing and all that stuff. So it may be around the corner it may not. So we need to be fluid with plans in place of what are we going to do first, what are we going to do? Second, what are we going to do? Third, so revenue first, second is cost structure. Literally, I would take your bank statements out one at a time for the last two or three months, and your credit card statements out and I would lay them out.

And I would start redlining things that maybe you don't think you need that are subscriptions that you don't use things that you seem to be buying that and this may be a smack in the face because some of us will just buy and it's on the credit card and we pay off the cards every month. And so we don't, we're okay with it. But is that okay? In these times? Probably not. If you're trying to keep your business flow, then we need to start by looking at our costs and start adjusting the numbers as quickly as possible to something that's more realistic. What that means is that every time you see a number you say, Is this a need? Or is it a want? If it's a need, that means it's necessary for the business to operate in the necessary for the business, listen to this, to generate the revenues. If it's a want, it's a luxury. It's an option. It's an intuitive way you can figure it out. If you're going to redline it, and you're sitting back, hesitating, whether you're redlining or not, and it's because it's tugging at your heart, it's probably more want than a need, because you're emotionally invested in that, in that expense of it. I always had that membership. But are you using it? Is it generating revenue? Is it supporting the business and the business growth? And if the answer is no, then it's the red line, you don't need it.

And you would have to be that that strict about it. I would go through and start refining the cost structure in the business immediately. Cash is going to be your oxygen cash is what's going to get you through this. We need to make sure that we're holding on to cash Generating as much cash as possible, which means that I gotta keep revenues up as much as I can cost down as much as possible. If I'm running balances on credit cards, and I need to get on the phone with my credit card companies right now and start having a conversation about renegotiating interest rates and the payments on them getting deferments without them hammering your credit in the process. So right now they're having these conversations daily, I pick up the phone and say, Now the way to do it is not what can you do for me? Okay, because that's, it's the way a lot of people approach negotiations and I teach stuff on negotiation where, you know, you when you negotiate, and you're putting someone across the table from you, that puts you in an adversarial position. We want that negotiation to happen sitting side by side. And the way that happens is not by two people coming in saying what do you got for me and they go, what do you got for me? Because that's transactional. It's not solutions, if you will. I don't even know. That's what

Alison 23:00
claim it. It's all Yes.

Mel 23:02
So. So the key is to start asking your questions in the construct of a how question. So how can we make this work? So I don't have a problem paying my bills, but I make sure that you guys are taken care of as best that you can be. How presupposes there's a jointly created solution between the two parties. Was that when you start negotiating,

Alison 23:27
that is a good tip. Really good tip. One thing that we've done to help with redlining and how you talked about redlining, yes, is we actually will cancel Well, we'll stop our credit card, and we'll get a new one. And so when I have to put payments, it makes me think do I really want this and it knocks down so much of the need versus want really quick?

Mel 23:52
Oh, yeah, yeah, you just instead of a new card, you can just have the same card issuer. It just asked him, I need you to reissue it. Yes. So it's just an issuance of a card. And then you know, the membership thing isn't necessarily going to go through and it just at least jogs the mind to say, Hmm, do I need this? Or allows you to get on the phone and say, Is there something that we can do together? That will make this feasible for me to stay on board?

Alison 24:20
So good. Okay. Can we go back to the portfolio entrepreneur? That Yeah, they're one of the things that I think a lot of humans, including me, including a lot of my students deal with is we get started on one thing, and then we're like, oh, let's start another thing that's gonna generate other revenue. And then, oh, let's try this third thing. And then we're spread so wide, that we're really not able to grasp really real income with it. What's the difference between going wide and going deep?

Mel 24:51
We can talk about just my business for instance, it's thought leader business and a lot of people are in the thought leader business now and expert business or wisdom in History however you want to coin it. You have knowledge, wisdom, expertise that can serve people make difference in people's lives, you want to go out, what's one degree offer two degrees off one way to the other, that I can additionally make money with something I already have. And if I move backwards in my process chain, can I make money? So for instance, I speak I do thought leadership, I do all that to make money. But I also step back and say, Well, what did I do to get my presentations done? What did I do to create my courses? And we created a program called Thoughtpreneur Academy that allowed me to teach that process. So I moved back from what I was doing at the front-facing and said, here's the process I do to make my to build my speeches. So if you are doing something upfront, what's the thing you do before that and can you sell that to people to allow them to do the same thing, and then before that, and then before that, because what we do tend to do is get really micro, on our thinking about how we can make money. And if you look at everything you do to get ready to get paid like I was doing, that whole line is a place where you can make money along the way. You just got to be open to it.

Alison 26:17
Okay, can I put you on the spot?

Mel 26:19
You certainly can.

Alison 26:20
How would someone do that when they're selling a physical product online?

Mel 26:23
So the challenge with that is the physical product becomes a little bit more of a challenge. But we still if you're selling it online, can we not continue to fulfill it? Or is it because the fulfillment channels are broken?

Alison 26:37
So I was thinking instead of if it's just online in your store, they could go to wholesale, or they could go to Amazon or they could go other places? Do you have any other recommendations besides different channels of selling on?

Mel 26:51
So I don't know about the other channels. But the other way to do it is can we take what we sell and bundle it to make it more valuable? Okay. Oh, yes,

Alison 27:00
bundles are fabulous.

Mel 27:02
Yeah. So like, we might bundle it with services, how to use how to implement how to do this. So they buy the same product from Amazon, but they're not going to get the training on how to use that product effectively. And so we increase the value and yeah, do we have to create something? Yeah, we got to create a training program, but create it once it's recorded, it's in a portal, it's delivered easily and quickly. And it's not repetitive for you. And so one of the things that I would look at is, Are there things that they need to do when they reach like, I'm trying to figure out this technology and I get this box that tells me here's your plug the camera, and, you know, if they had a tutorial that says, we're going to walk you through the whole setup of the tech on this and everything and if you buy our program will literally walk you through it. I paid extra for it. And so when I'm saying bundling, not bundling more products but bundling more value for the actual outcome that they want, which will get them the outcome either faster or easier.

Alison 28:05
Yep, agreed 100% agreed on that. I call it the concert experience. Instead of just buying a CD, you deliver a concert. Right? Okay, so much more for a concert. Because you get the experience.

Mel 28:18
You absolutely get the experience. And I think that's a really key point is more than anything else today is if we can create good experiences for the people that we're serving. they'll remember that totally.

Alison 28:31
Okay, so can we dive into the cares act now?

Mel 28:35
Yeah, I'm going to have some notes in front of me because this thing is still fresh. In my mind.

Alison 28:39
It's like a bajillion pages

Mel 28:40
long. It's 880 plus pages long that I and I literally yesterday spent a lot of the day and I haven't got through the whole thing, and I'm still interpreting it. And I'm watching what everyone else is saying also, and there seems to be some lack of agreement, not everyone agrees on on exactly what it all means and how it's going. be applied and everything in there still, I mean, they created this thing to help people, which is great. But they never thought about how does this thing work? How are we going to make it work in a way that the house is going to get executed on in there. But there are some things in here that I think for business owners that that can really, really help it got signed into law last Friday. So it's still new, but there's a couple of elements that come into play. One is that some people will get a direct payment, which I honestly don't think is a big deal. I know they're making a big deal of it, but they're going to send a direct payment probably by the end of April. They're saying by the end of April for 1200 dollars to every individual, if you're single, making less than 75,000 or less, you'll get 1200 bucks, married it's you'll get 2400 up to 150,000 if you're making 150,000 less and then it phases out over time. I think it's like phaseout $5 for every hundred dollars over you make something these are the kinds have really crazy calculations they put in there that you got to go through. But there's that you'll probably get this one time check of some sort. Plus, if you have children under the age of 1700 dependents on your tax return, then you'll get $500 per child. And it's a one-time thing. It's truly not meant to solve the economic problem. It's there to cushion the shock of the suddenness, I think of it is really what it is. The second thing that I think comes into play is what they've done is they've expanded the unemployment possibilities and in a couple of ways that I think it makes a big deal. One is they expanded the unemployment to not only be just employees that maybe are unemployed and had a reduction in income or loss of income, but also they now are going to allow people that are sole proprietors or contractors to apply for unemployment now under the pandemic provision. So now a gig worker or someone will have access to possibly unemployment. Plus, they put an additional amount of $600 a week available. So if you qualify for unemployment, you'll get an additional $600 a week on top of that, from this act, okay, so potentially another 2400 a month. Here's where there's some disconnect, I think from reading it. And what I've heard is that you can get the $600 a week for up to 39 weeks. But I've also seen a few people say it's only four weeks, and I don't see that anywhere. So it's somewhere between four and 39 weeks, that's hasn't gotten clear yet that you can get this additional 600. But the big thing is this. It's not just for employees anymore contractors and solopreneurs. And gig workers that are affected, may be able to use it.

Alison 31:52
Okay, what about some of the small business stuff.

Mel 31:57
So from a small business standpoint, you've got a couple things that That kind of played the first is the what they call economic injury disaster loans, the ideals. This is always been in place. We've always had this economic injury disaster loan through the SBA, but they've nuanced it specifically for the coronavirus. So under the coronavirus. It's a fast track loan. I literally looked at the process before we came on their normal disaster loan will take you a good hour or so to do all the agriculture applications and paperwork. This will take you frickin 10 minutes. There's no documentation, you're checking some boxes, you're giving them a revenue amount, and you can get this potential now here's the thing. The loan you can get for up to a max of 10 million, but it's the lesser of two and a half times the average monthly payroll for the last 12 months or 10 million bucks. Their loan will have to be it will be a 10-year loan with an interest rate at 4% or lower with that loan, you can get a $10,000 potential grant with it. And if it's a grant and emergency grant cash advance, it can be forgiven if it's spent on qualifying expenses. So qualifying expenses are payroll expenses, utilities, rent, mortgage, those are business-related expenses that need keep the doors open, the loan potentially has a forgiveness in there. But there are so many little nuances in there. They talk about its forgiveness. But if your payroll costs go down, from one year to the next, between January and June of 2020, compared to January and June of 2019, or you reduce your payroll a certain percentage, then the forgiveness won't be an option and you just got yourself alone, which can be fine. Just know that that's the case. So the forgiveness isn't automatic. There are some further qualifications to get forgiveness so we can get loans to get us through The loan can come with a potential $10,000 grant as long as it's spent on payroll related business-related types of employment-related costs. And we can get get that sole proprietors and independent contractors are eligible for these loans also, so it's not just entity businesses and, and things like that. That's the first set of loans that someone can get. It's an easy qualification. You don't have to submit a tax returns. It's a shortened process. There is no personal guarantees, as long as the loan is below, I think 200,000 there's no personal guarantees. And there is no collateral. Most SBA loans require real estate as collateral and, and personal guarantees. There's none of that for this loan.

Alison 34:43
So do you recommend people doing it right now because they're giving credit? Do you think in the future, a couple months, they'll be a little bit tighter on it?

Mel 34:50
So the short answer your question is, I think, yes. And but I want to qualify it. One is that they've allocated money in this bill for these loans. Once that money is used up, that money is gone. So if people apply for these loans, and they use up all the money and they don't make a provision for more, then you don't even have the option anymore to I would apply for it because it takes literally takes 10 minutes. You don't need to take it. Okay. It's almost like saying I want to get in line and I'll make the decision later. And so you may call that out. Will it clog up the government's? Yeah, I may. But the problem is because there's a limited amount of funds. I want you to get in line quickly. Yeah. Then when it comes to taking a loan, just debt in general, I would sit back and be really careful about taking on debt and saying, am I taking on debt to take care of a temporary problem. In other words, I'm going to take on debt to replace revenue that's not coming in, or cost that I'm not willing to cut and I don't see revenue coming in for a while and I'm not willing to cut those costs and all I'm doing is financing a lifestyle and not financing, bridging my business through this tough time if the loan is taken to try and bridge me through this tough time, and I have a plan in place to do those other things that we talked about, and I have an expectation and a plan to be able to recover and pay the loan back the loan term is 10 years but pay the loan back then I'm game but taking on debt for a sinking ship that's going to sink anyways. Doesn't make sense. So agreed. If you were in trouble financial trouble before, because the business was an operating wasn't doing well. Taking on this debt is a smart thing because the business isn't going to get better. It's just going to continue to get worse. So you need to be real about that. That makes sense.

Alison 36:51
Totally. And I think it goes back to your What do you call it the 6081 20 days?

Mel 36:57
Yes, six weeks, 45 days. Yeah, 45 121 80

Alison 37:03
that's kind of close on those numbers. And the let's see if that, okay, six weeks, can we do it. And then the next one, like having that bridge to be able to carry you through, if you're brick and mortar, whereas online, you can keep going, you can keep making those sales

Mel 37:19
if you're one of the entrepreneurs, because I know some that are out there. And this is going to be a huge wake up call from your solely driven by sale, sale sale sale sales, but you're not looking at the numbers. You're not having your hands on the dials or looking at numbers. This is going to be a reality check. It's time for you to check the numbers. You've got to look at the numbers. You got to know what the numbers mean. Because it's time to make a plan. It's time to create a strategy. It's time to execute on that strategy, be willing on a weekly basis to say is the strategy working, not working, what tweaks what's working and make adjustments? This is going to be fluid, and every week your plan is going to change?

Alison 37:55
Yes, yes. Okay. So, I know we've talked about so much so problems, profit problems, the cares act, sinking boats, sinking business boats. What is one piece of advice you have for entrepreneurs, especially my crowd that a lot of them are just starting or just getting their feet wet about going into the future and is now the right time to build a business and to keep going, what is your advice on that?

Mel 38:22
So if you just look at history, some of the greatest businesses of our time were built during downtime. The thing that we need to look at is saying, am I doing business as usual? And the answer is no. Business as usual, is going to be unusual from here on out that our normal operating isn't going to be what the norm that we see. So I think that it's a huge opportunity today, to go serve, to do things in a different way to find a way to the marketplace. So I think it's a great time to start. As long as you're being smart about it. We're not starting a business on a bunch of credit cards, we're not betting the home, we're not betting the children, we're not doing those things, we're going to be smart about it, we're going to plan it out, we're going to have, you know, I know there's some people that say you don't want to plan B, No, you do want to plan B, not because you're going to use Plan B. But I think one of the key elements for entrepreneurs is to anticipate what could happen, and then solve those could happens before they ever become real. And so the reason when I work with businesses to build business plans, they'll create a business plan, they'll hand it to me and we'll look it through and we'll pick it apart and say great, and I'll put it aside.

Let's create another business plan without using those strategies, two of them. So we do two of them and sometimes even three. And the reason for it is I want if you think about someone like Usain Bolt, who was you know, gold medalist in the Olympics for the hundred-meter dash almost 100 yard dash that would date me. So in order to prepare for one Just one race. He did strength training, he did weights, he did endurance training, he did sprints, he did stretching, he did all kinds of different things to prepare him for the one race. We as entrepreneurs need to approach the same way. We need to look at things and say, Alright, if the only way for me to be successful is that all the planets line up, and there's a lunar eclipse at the same time, there's a solar eclipse, guess what the likelihood of success is not high. So we need to anticipate the things that can go wrong. And figure out the solutions to those things before we stepped in and know that probably 70% will never go wrong, but we flex the muscle we built the strength we built the flexibility in so when that happens, and if it happens, we just shift gears. It's kind of what we're doing out. Some of the people that you see now are agile enough because they've either been through it before, and they're dealing with it and they say we're just going to show If gears and that's what I would do, I would really come up with a very distinct plan of what's my outcome? What are my goals? What's the action steps to get there? How long is it going to get take to get there? What's the cost to making that happen? How is it going to get paid, and a rhythm in which you're going to evaluate each one of those elements on a regular basis as you move forward so you don't get caught blindsided,

Alison 41:24
broken out of mouth of a true CPA organized? And very, very thought, like, think about all the steps in there. But I think I have skipped a few steps in my journey.

Mel 41:38
Sometimes right now we can, especially if you don't have the financial cushion to lamda

Alison 41:43
Yeah. Awesome. Well, I know I've taken up a ton of your time, I had no

Mel 41:48
idea how long but I I'll talk to you anytime my friend. It's always amazing. It's been such a gift to get to know you.

Alison 41:54
Oh, you too. I'm so grateful for you of all the things that you've taught me and all the things that I get to learn from You now you tell everybody where they can find you.

Mel 42:02
Probably the couple things ways that they can find me is one on my, my Facebook Page Mel Abraham, my Instagram is Mel Abraham nine I don't know who the first eight are but I will hunt them down. And my website is MelAbraham.com. So there's a free training on there I'm putting out as much as possible, especially during this time to help entrepreneurs help people financially understand make some smart decisions and not the one thing that I might say is that this is that I've always told people I've worked with is that when we make decisions and panic, we turned dollars into pennies. When we make decisions based on principles who patients we turn pennies into dollars. And so what I want to do is strip away the emotions from the decisions, strip away the panic, give you perspective and give you some points in which you can make proper decisions. It's what's going to get us through it. The other thing that's going to get us to it is making sure that we're banded together as a humanity and saying you're not in this alone. Especially with us. And that's how we're going to do this. I promise you, I don't know when but I promise you we will look back on and go you remember when boy that was crazy streets were empty. Everything was freaked out we shelves were empty all of that. We made it through the question you got to answer is this not what got you here? But what are you going to be like when you get through it?

Alison 43:22
Yes, I love it. Okay, one thing is your email is phenomenal. How do people get signed up for email, just go to your landing page, your homepage or my Oh, my emails? What I would do?

Mel 43:34
Yeah, just go to my page or I have a free training that'll put them on the list also called join gmail.com. If they go there, it'll take them through some of the whole processes that I think through on thought leadership and building a thought leader business.

Alison 43:47
Perfect. Kay, I appreciate you so much. Thank you.

Mel 43:51
Same here. Thank you, Allison.

Outro 43:58
Oh, that was so much fun. Thank you so much for listening to Because I Can Podcast if you haven't already downloaded the Because I Can bundle, then head over to AllisonJPrince.com/Bundle, the only place you can get access to your personalized bundle. So, head over there now and download it. I look forward to you joining next time on Because I Can Life podcast. We'll see you then.

HI, I’M ALISON

I’m an expert at online business building. It all started with selling products that were headed to the trash and now 4 multi-million dollar business later… It is now my mission to show you how to build your dream life. Why? Because YOU CAN!

Debbie

You will never learn more, you will never grow more and you will never enjoy more this course and community that Alison Prince has created. Alison is the real deal and the things that she shares is incredible! Do you want to be your own boss? Do you want financial freedom? Then follow Alison and get her course!! Best decision ever.

Debbie

Alison J Prince

5

2016-05-03T18:05:39-06:00

Debbie

You will never learn more, you will never grow more and you will never enjoy more this course and community that Alison Prince has created. Alison is the real deal and the things that she shares is incredible! Do you want to be your own boss? Do you want financial freedom? Then follow Alison and get her course!! Best decision ever.

https://www.alisonjprince.com/testimonials/michelle/

Julie

Alison's commitment to her course and students is phenomenal. She offers an unrivaled level of support, with weekly trainings, course updates, expert guests and more. She's also created an online group unlike any other I've ever been a part of. Course participants help one another, encourage each other, and share information--and of course, Alison is right in there as well. Highly recommend this course for anyone who is looking to build a sustainable e-commerce business the right way. Definitely 5 stars!

Julie

Alison J Prince

5

2016-05-03T18:07:52-06:00

Julie

Alison's commitment to her course and students is phenomenal. She offers an unrivaled level of support, with weekly trainings, course updates, expert guests and more. She's also created an online group unlike any other I've ever been a part of. Course participants help one another, encourage each other, and share information--and of course, Alison is right in there as well. Highly recommend this course for anyone who is looking to build a sustainable e-commerce business the right way. Definitely 5 stars!

https://www.alisonjprince.com/testimonials/catherine/

Shelly

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! I have been dabbling in trying to get an online store up and running for over a year, gave up, and then seen Alison's story! There was just something about her that drew me in and am I ever THANKFUL!! I joined the Clan just a couple of months ago. I have learned more in those two months than I think I EVER would have without this! I am already selling on my own site and pushing forward daily!! So excited to see what the future holds!!

Shelly

Alison J Prince

5

2016-05-03T18:24:44-06:00

Shelly

WOW, WOW, WOW!!! I have been dabbling in trying to get an online store up and running for over a year, gave up, and then seen Alison's story! There was just something about her that drew me in and am I ever THANKFUL!! I joined the Clan just a couple of months ago. I have learned more in those two months than I think I EVER would have without this! I am already selling on my own site and pushing forward daily!! So excited to see what the future holds!!